Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor CHILD LABOR Source: Monthly Labor Review, Vol. 15, No. 4 (OCTOBER, 1922), pp. 105-109 Published by: Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41828506 . Accessed: 16/05/2014 11:57 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Monthly Labor Review. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 194.29.185.127 on Fri, 16 May 2014 11:57:12 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Transcript
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor
CHILD LABORSource: Monthly Labor Review, Vol. 15, No. 4 (OCTOBER, 1922), pp. 105-109Published by: Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of LaborStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41828506 .
Accessed: 16/05/2014 11:57
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve andextend access to Monthly Labor Review.
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Census Returns on Gainfully Employed Children, 1920.1
THE age proportion
in the United of gainfully
States occupied was strikingly
children reduced
10 to 15 from
3"ears 1910
of age in the United States was strikingly reduced from 1910 to 1920, the most marked decreases being shown in the West
North Central, the South Atlantic, the East South Central, and the West South Central geographical divisions. The following table shows the number, sex, ana proportion of gainfully employed children between specified ages in the United States at the last fire censuses:
NUMBER AND PROPORTION OF CHILDREN OF EACH SEX 10 TO 15 YEARS OF AGE ENGAGED IN GAINFUL OCCUPATIONS, FOR THE UNITED STATES, 1880 TO 1920.
j Children 10 to 15 years of age.
CeiwK en. iK J year ear and and .ex. spt ! Engaged in painful CeiwK en. iK J year ear and and .ex. spt j occupations. I Total.
Male I - 1, 094, 854 25. 9 4, 219. 145 Female j 2 408. 917 10.0 4,103.22*
Total j - 1,503,771 Is. 1 8.322. 373 1900. ! Male 1,264.411 26.1 4,852,427 Female 4S5, 767 10.2 4, 760. *25
Total i 1.750.17* 1*.2 9.613.25* 1910. ! Male 1,353,139 24.8 5,464.22* Female • 637, 081V 11.9 5.364.137
Total 1 1.990,225 IS. 4 10,S2$,3t»5 1920. I Male ' 714,248 11.3 0.294.9S5
Female 346.610 .>.6 (i. 207 , >97 Total ' 1,060, So* S. 5 12.502.5s2
1 United States. Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census. Fourteenth census of ino United States. Population: 1920. Occupations of children. Washington, 1922. 14pp. » Corrected figures; for explanation see Occupation Report for 1900, pp. l.a> i-l-yjvui.
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The decreases and increases from 1910 to 1920 in the number of children, at the ages indicated, gainfully employed in the United States in different occupational groups were as follows:
GAINFULLY OCCUPIED CHILPREX 10 TO 15YEARS.OF AGE IX THE UNITED STATES, 1910 AND 1920.
I Per cent of increase 1910 ! 1'j20 ( + ) or decrease (-), 1910 to 1920.
! ' : ¡ I i Population 10 to lõ years | , ! li of age 5, 464, 22* 5, 364. 137 10, S2*. 365 6, 294, 985 6, 207. 597 12, 502. 582 + 15. 2 4- 15. 7, -f 15. 5 All occupations ; 1,353, 139; 637,086 1.990,225 1 714,248 ' 346,610! ' 1,060,S5S¡ -47.2,- 45.6: ' -46.7 Agriculture, forestry, and | 1 ' ' ' animal husbandry 1,022.251; 410,177 1,432.428 459, 23S 188,0711 647,309 -55. l'-54.i; -54.8 Extraction of minerals... IS, 0191 71 18,090 7,0-15 146 7,191 -60.9! ' -60.2
Manufacturing and me- I ! 1 ' I chanicalindustries 151, 178? 109,7.54 260, 932^ 104.335 81,002 185,337! -31.0¡-26.2< -29.0 Transportation 1M97Í 2.303 20, W 15,617 3,295 1*,912: -15.6+43.1 -9.1 Trade 57,833; 12; 867 : 70,700 49,234. 14,134: 63,30*' -14.9. +9. Si -10.4 Public service (hot else- i I ; ' I where classified ) 527! IO1 537 1.0*5 45 1, 130' + 105.9: '+110.4 Professional service 2,056¡ 1. 510, 3,566, 1,979 1. ' 4>6 3,465 -3.7 -1.6 -2.8 .Domestic and personal j I j : ' i ! service 24,356* S7.S15 112,171 10,082 37.924 54,006 -34.0-56.8 -51.9 Clerical occupations 5s, 422 12, 579. 71,001 59,633 20,507 , 80.140 - 2. 1 -63.0 +12.9
The agricultural group shows the largest numerical reduction - 785,119 - the decreases for all other occupations combined amounting to only 144,248. The great reduction in the number of children in agricultural pursuits in 1920 is thought to have resulted chiefly from the shift of the census date from April 15 in 1910 to January 1 in 1920. The decrease in the number of child workers ia mining and quarrying is reported as probably largely due to additional legal restriction for such employments. Both these reasons affected other classes of employment to some extent. In general, it is said, the decrease for children was but a part of a corresponding general de- crease for all persons.
Working Children of Boston.
THE Publication Children's
No. Bureau
89) dealing and
has recently
Somervillc with working
published
who left children
a
school
study in
(Bureau Boston, Publication No. 89) dealing with working children in Boston,
Cambridge, Chelsea, and Somervillc who left school to go to work before reaching the age of 10. The study is based on data gathered from the work certificates of the children kept on file by the school authorities; the records of the children in the Boston continu- ation schools; personal interviews with 823 of the children in these schools, and replies to a questionnaire sent out in December, 1918, to this last group. The work certificates and records of the Boston continuation school were used for all children who, on September 1, 1914, were 1 4 but under lõ, and who began work before becoming 16; the certificates covered a group of Õ.692 children in the four cities, and the continuation school records dealt with a group of 3,399 of these children in Boston only.
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The distribution of the children by nativity, both in the total group who, on September 1, 1914, were 14 but under 15, and in the special group of these who went to work before reaching 16, was for the fouir cdties as follows :
NUMBER AND PER CENT OF CHILDREN 14 AND UNDER 15 YEARS OF AGE ON SEP- TEMBER 1, 1914, AND OF SUCH CHILDREN WHO WENT TO WORK BEFORE REACHING 16 YEARS OF AGE, BY NATIVITY.
Children 14 and under 15 years of age on Sept. 1, 1914-
Who went to work N ativity . before reaching 16 _ A years of age. Number. ~ _ A
^
Number.
Native born 14,402 88. 9 4,646 81.6 Foreign born 1,790 11.1 1,044 18.3 Total 16,192 100.0 5,692 100.0
It is evident that the foreign born, who formed but a small part of the total age group, furnished more than their proportionate share to the group of workers - nearly one-fifth of . the latter as against less than^ one-eighth of the former. Taking the children without dis- tinction of sex or nativity, it appears that a little over one-third of those in the age group began work before they were 16. This pro- portion varied considerably, however, according to sex and nativity, as shown by the following figures :
NUMBER AND PROPORTION OF CHILDREN GOING TO WORK BEFORE REACHING 16 YEARS OF AGE, BY NATIVITY AND SEX.
Children 14 and under 15 years of age on Sept. 1, 1914r-
Who went to work Nativity and sex. before reaching 16
years of age. Number.
Per cent of Number, number in age group.
Native born: Boys 7,185 2,860 39.8 Girls 7,217 1,786 24.7
It is evident that the foreign-born children go to work more gen- erally than the native*, born, and that the difference is especially marked in the case of girls.
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For the children studied in the Boston continuation school, addi- tional facts were learned. About one-fourth came from broken families. Of the 3,399 children studied, 66.6 per cent were at the time of beginning work living at home with both parents, 17.7 per cent had lost their fathers through death or desertion, 4.4 per cent had lost their mothers, and 2.8 per cent had lost both parents. This confirms the findings of earlier studies, that a child's going to work is more closely connected with the loss of a father than of a mother. The father's unemployment did not seem to have much effect, being found in only 8.8 per cent of the cases in which the father was living with his family. The general economic condition of the family seemed far more influential.
From one-third to two-fifths of the children, 32.7 per cent of those in the continuation- school group and 40.5 per cent of those in the interviewed group, stated that they had left school for economic reasons - that is, because their earnings were needed at home. * * * A larger proportion of girls than of boys left school for this reason. Of the girls interviewed, indeed, nearly naif, 48.6 per -cent, left school for economic reasons. Evidently the girls, more generally than the boys, were kept in school unless their earnings were actually needed.
Discontent with school was the reason given for leaving school by the next largest group, 22.9 per cent of the boys and 16.5 per cent of the girls. »The child's own desire to go to work was more effective among the boys than the girls, being assigned by 15.3 per cent of the former but by only 8.1 per cent of the latter.
A study oi the 3,399 children in the continuation-school group showed that they had made comparatively little use of the place- ment bureaus and employment agencies, only 9.3 per cent having thus secured their first positions. The old-time methods of getting a job, through friends and relatives or by going out and looking for it, had been used in 76 per cent of the cases, ana in 4 per cent employ- ment had been offered.
The work secured was largely unskilled with little chance for ad- vancement. Practically 52 per cent of the boys from the four cities went into messenger, errand, or delivery work; 21 per cent went into factory or mechanical trades; but only 4 per cent were entered as apprentices or helpers in skilled trades. The largest group of girls - 48.9 per cent - went into factory trades, and the next'largest, 47 per cent, into so-called clerical occupations, wrapping, selling, and delivery of goods. Interviews were obtained with 823 of these chil- dren, through which it was learned that 32.9 per cent of them were still in their first positions, having held them, at the time of the inter- view, from less than 1 month up to 18 but under 24 months. Of the 67 per cent who were not still in their first positions, more than one- fifth had held them for over six months, while something over one- half had held them for less than three months. Of these children, 73.5 per cent had begun work at a wage of less than $5 per week, 14 per cent had received $5 but under $6, and only 3 per cent had begun at $6 or more a week. Six hundred and seven children had worked for one year or over, and of these 16.3 per cent reported no increase in weeldy wage, 42 per cent had had an increase of less than $2 a week and 27.3 per cent had had increases of $2 and over a week, the great majority of these last increases being between $2 and $4.
The report contains a study of the health and accident record of the children interviewed, and a study of the enforcement of the child-
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labor laws as illustrated by the experience of the children under consideration.
The general conclusion reached is that 14 is too early an age for children to be permitted to go to work.
As for preparation lor industrial efficiency and for the duties of citizenship in adult life, this study appears to show that i or ¿our-íifths of these child workers who had delinitely left school for industry, the period between the date of leaving school and the sixteenth birthday was in nearly al), casos almost, if not completely, wasted, and that for many it was worse than wasted. Equipped with at best only a rudimentary education and guided, except in rare instances, only by chance, these children were necessarily excluded by law from all trades involving the use of dangerous machinery, and by their own ignorance and inexperience from practically all other occupations which would offer them any opportunity to acquire either mental or manual skilL In the vast majority of cases even the little dexterity which they might have obtained in a position was soon lost because as they grew older they passed on from their chil- dren's tasks to entirely different occupations. * * * The findings of this study point to the fact that, whether in Boston or any other similar commercial and manu- facturing city, both the child and the community have more to lose than to gain by a policy which permits children to go to work when less than 16 years of age.
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